


Just Billy

by Rehkind



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: College, College Student Dipper Pines, M/M, Possession, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2018-10-25 01:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10754106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehkind/pseuds/Rehkind
Summary: Growing up being attacked by a demon triangle is very terrifying.But after Bill Cipher got destroyed? Shouldn't he be save? Isn't it just a nightmare now?He was sure he would be...Until he met Billy Caplan.





	1. Meet again

"Of course I'll miss you, you dummy!" Mabel exclaimed while hugging Dipper another time.His twin sister seemed to take her fair share of time only to say goodbye. It wasn't like they wouldn't see each other ever again. To be exact, they had already promised each other to call at least once a day, their parents had ordered them to spend all the holidays with them and the way to Mabel's college took only two hours with the car. Nothing should worry her.But Dipper understood her. They were used to spending most time together and they shared many memories that he held close, even if some of them were of a chaotic time. "I'll miss you too," he said with a grin. "But I think mom and dad might get a little tired if you let them wait another half hour." Their parents had left for the car a good while ago and were ready to take Mabel to her own campus. But she was taking her time to say goodbye in the middle of the campus. He could even see their parents car and their slightly annoyed looks. "Okay, but you call me this evening? Tell me everything about your timetable and room mate!" Dipper hugged her another time, before pushing her towards the car. "Okay, last hug. You have to go now, otherwise you will have nothing to tell me about your college this evening." Mabel nodded, and turned around, hoping towards the car. “Goodbye Dipper!!!” He smiled, and waved until she reached her destination. “Bye, bye Mabel.”

Once he couldn’t see the vehicle anymore, he turned around and walked off. He returned to his dorm room, only to see his roommate still hadn’t arrived. The room was relatively big. On the one side beside the door was a small kitchen with only the most necessary things, the other side had a small bookshelf. Two bunk beds were by the sides of the window. Below the left on was a couch, below the right one there was table for two. Somehow someone had even pushed two closets into the room. With a sight Dipper started to unpack his suitcase. Clothes, books and lots of oddments from the past years. He even had his old cap with him, a reminder of his time with his grunkels. A few gems he had acquired, his glasses. There wasn’t much he had with him but all these things were important to him. After getting comfortable on his side of the room,he chose the table, he went outside and tried to get a feeling for the campus, where his classes will be and how he might get there. 

The grounds where big - nearly big enough to get lost but he already felt comfortable here. Dipper had chosen the path to a biology major.He knew Stanford would have been more fond of physic but he had found himself loving the quirks of living nature. There was a special beauty of cells working together. And therefore his timetable was filled to the brim with biology related subjects: Biology itself, Molecular and Cellular Foundations, Chemistry, Introductory Physics, Calculus, Measuring Life, Fungal Biology, Plant Ecology, Microbiology but also Archaeology, English Advanced Reading and Psychology. He was very happy with what he had chosen. And to his benefit, all the science departments were in one building, so he only had to change locations when he had englisch. School would start tomorrow but the place was already filled with people. In front of the chemistry labs, a girl suddenly spoke to him. "Hey, you're new here too?" Dipper was a little confused. "Um... Yes?" "Oh damn, I hoped to find someone who knows where shit is located. You don't know by accident where the secretariat is?" The boy grinned. "Luckily for you, I know that already. It's in the same building as the englisch department, first floor, 1. door next to the staircase." The girl seemed relieved. "Thank god, you saved my life." Before she sprinted off, she turned around again. "I'm Jesse, hope I see you soon!" But before Dipper could introduce himself, she disappeared.

He was satisfied with his new knowledge of the campus and decided that he could chill for the rest of the day. As he finally got back to his dorm room, the door was already open. Carefully not to make a sound, he peered inside. A young man stood there, hands buried in a bag. When he pulled out a bunch of books, Dipper got a better view of him. Tall and lanky - he looked like a fucking nerd. Some kind of good looking nerd. His hair was short and black on the sides but pretty long and blond on the top. Freckles clustered his face and a huge dorky grin appeared once he spotted Dipper. “Come in!” he said and turned towards him. A homestuck shirt - he really was a nerd. Dipper closed the door beneath him and walked up to his room mate. “I'm Dipper Pines,” he greeted him and offered him a hand. The boy grinned mischievously. 

“We Don't need such a formal introduction! After all, we already know each other in someway, pinetree!”  
A lot was going through Dipper’s mind when he heard that far too familiar nickname from such a unfamiliar voice. With a jump, Dipper had already reached the door. “Wait,please!”the boy pleaded. “I’m not Cipher!” he tried to explain. But before he could continue Dipper shouted: “How the fuck do you know about that!?!” He never told anyone about what happened in Gravity Falls. Only people from there could know about Cipher and even fewer knew about this particular nickname. “It’s quite a bit to explain,” the other boy tried to calm him down. “So you could take a seat? Would make it easier to talk to you without the stress of you running away.” Dipper hesitated. “But you’ll stay on your side until we got this clear?”A rule the other boy was okay with. Dipper sat down on a chair and stared at the man who was awkwardly shuffling towards the couch. “So… you know Harry Potter?” he asked cautiously. Dipper looked confused. What the hell did that have to do with all of this? The Other boy took his angry expression as an answer. “Okay, I take this as an yes. Well, you know, Voldemort made these bits of soul to stay alive for ever, right? I think, horcruxes?And like, that triangle guy made those too. But instead of putting them into inanimate objects,he put them into DNA. Like, lots of DNA. And... “ A small moment of silence. “Does that sound believable ‘till now?” he asked. “Like utter bullshit,” Dipper responded coldly. “But Continue, maybe you’ll convince me.” The man looked at the floor. “Well, okay. When I was 14, I woke up one day and… there were new memories in my head. Memories, that were far too fucked up for a kid. Death, torture, destruction… and things I still don’t understand. Maybe because humans can’t understand things from wherever Cipher came from. The point is, I don’t have all of his memories, heck, my brain is too small keep all of these memories. But you know what I saw in these memories?" A small chuckle escaped his mouth. "I saw you. And ... Since I realized that there must be at least one person who knew about Cipher... I wanted to find you and I wanted to ask you about all of this." He had that dorky grin on his face again. Still, Dipper wasn't sure what he should make out of this story.Still sounded like a lie but at least it was well crafted. The boy seemed to read that right of his face and continued. "I know that you don't believe me but I can change that." Suddenly,the room turned far darker, as if the sun got eaten up. Only the boy's eyes seemed to glow as part of his belongings, a knife, a book and a talisman started to float over his head. The boy pushed out his hand with a smile. 

"I'm Bill Caplan, would you let me take a peek inside your mind?"

Dipper just slapped him right in the face. Shocked, everything fell out of the air and the light returned. “Wha-” “Do you really think that I’ll just let you into my head, you idiot! So you can lock me up again? Stab those knifes into my skin and then destroy this all? What do you think? That I’m plain out stupid?” Dipper continued to ramble on and on while Bill only held his cheek. His eyes were wide open, he was very shocked. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” “What the fuck? of course you’ll know! Did you think I’ll buy that you’re just some human with a demon memories? If you want to hurt me again, it’s not that easy Cipher!” “I’m not the triangle!” Caplan stood up angrily. “And I really didn’t know that- that things like this had happened to you! Someone killed that demon! Otherwise he wouldn’t be in my head! That’s why I’m here! I need to know what- what’s inside of me…” Bill suddenly became quiet. He looked away, unbearable sadness in his eyes. “Please don’t call me Cipher. I’m not him. I’m Billy.” He turned around and just sat down on the couch again, covering his face with his hands. What emotion was he hiding? “Just Billy,” he said coldly.  
Dipper realized what he had done. What if he was really just a boy, he had slapped him right in the face and screamed something that must have had sounded like utter nonsense. Quietly, he sat down next to Billy. “So… let’s say I believe you. What do you know?” The boy didn’t look up but muttered. “Not much. The ritual that bound my ancestor. Otherworldly shit. Burning monster. A man's face being twisted around. Other demons. Things I can’t describe. And… you.” No one knew what to say to that. “In that case, I’m sorry I hit you,” Dipper said and looked away. “It’s alright, I shouldn’t have asked,” Billy muttered. the silence was awkward and kinda hurtful. He slowly turned his head and glared towards Dipper. “You look as cute as I have imagined you,” he grinned. “Just because I slapped you there’s no need to tease me!” Dipper said with a soft grin. Billy laughed and sat down properly again. “Who says I’m teasing?” he said with sly grin. “Well that was the worst introduction I’ve ever had.” Pines laughed, it was true. There was probably no worse way to get to know a person. “Okay let’s do this like this: I’ll accept by now that you are Billy. And I’ll call you Billy. But that doesn’t mean I’ll believe you. I’m gonna watch you decide how trustworthy you are after a while.” “And how long will your test time take?” Billy asked curiously with hope in his eyes. “I’m not sure. I don’t know how well a demon would play pretend.” Caplan seemed to think about it. “Well, okay. Can we try this whole thing again?” Dipper was confused. “Em, okay?” Billy grinned and went with his hand through his hair. “Okay, I’m Billy Caplan, I’m trying to get an art major.” Dipper understood what the boy wanted. “I’m Dipper Pines, biology major. Nice to meet you.” Both laughed about this scene. It was kinda hilarious, trying to get to know each other properly after screaming at another. “Let’s try to be friends,” Billy suggested. “Even if you don’t trust me.” Dipper gave it a thought. It wouldn’t hurt to get along when they would share this room for a year at least. “Friends on probation,” he agreed.


	2. Found and Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a short time, the boys become real friends. But due to Billy's recklessness, this newfound trust is endangered.

It happened so quickly. It took Dipper’s brain a while to process what was really happening to Billy. Looking back to the incident, one might say that the demon was the only one to blame. Dipper had warned him more than once that playing with a knife might be dangerous. Cipher knew that he was an idiot for not listening and continuing to flip it around, trying to impress, well, somebody. But in that moment he was only afraid. After all, there was a knife in his right eye. Plenty of reason to panic. It might be the reason why the demon pulled it out without a second thought. “No!” Dipper screamed, his hands trying to reach the knife but it was too late. Loads of blood spilled out of the hole. Billy screamed and tried to cover it up with his hands. It looked like he was trying to keep his eye inside but it was useless. “Fuck, fuck, it really hurts,” he cried, actual tears leaving his eyes. “I never felt so much pain, pinetree!” he sobbed, before starting to laugh maniacally. “Oh shit, this is so fucking weird. B-but I … that’s my only body,” he whispered. “I don’t know how to I- I-...” Billy hadn’t shown so much genuine emotion since their first meeting. “I don’t want to die, Dipper.”

Exactly 55 days had passed since they’ve met. In all of this time, they had rarely talked about his past. To be more precise, Dipper cut off Caplan after two sentences. After a while, the boy had gotten the message and stopped bothering him about it. Instead, something rather unexpected happened: They had become quite good friends. Maybe because the boy was so damn clingy. Or maybe because Dipper genuinely enjoyed listening to him and his crazy stories. Or maybe because he seemed to enjoy his nerdy ramblings too. Or maybe it was Billy’s adorable, stupid grin - it didn’t matter. He liked him somehow. Both ot comfortable to start teasing another a little. ‘Pinetree’ & ‘Cipher’ sounded less like a thread with each day. They’ve spend a lot of time together and got to know each other. But he still didn’t entirely believe that the other boy wasn’t the demon. 

With a sudden abnormally loud sob, Dipper snapped out of his thoughts. Billy’s face was a mess of blood and tears and maybe a little snot. Did he just stand there and watch the boy scream with a single reaction? He felt bad, it was truly the worst time to space out. “We’ll get you to a hospital,” he said while calling the ambulance. Billy continued to whine and laugh while Dipper gave the man on the phone instructions to their place. It would take a while until they would arrived. Billy seemed to lose his mind, Dipper didn’t even believe that the demon was able to panic so much. If he even was the demon. But he knew that stress wouldn’t help the wound. So he took Billy’s hand.”Come, we have to get out of the dorm. Let’s wait for the ambulance outside.” Cipher looked confused, mostly by Pinetree’s hand on his own. “Okay…” The way seemed to be infinite but once they got outside, the demon sat down on the stairs. As he started to sob again, Dipper sat down next to him and pulled him into his arms. Nearly automatically, the other boy started to snuggle with him, gripping his arm painfully strong and getting blood and tears onto their whole clothes. Dipper wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing there, mostly because he wasn't really that great with comforting people. He was quite the awkward person and wasn’t used to much body contact beside hugs from Mabel. Still, it seemed to work since Billy was more quiet than before, just sobbing quietly into his hair, still in shock. Caplan was so much taller than him… he must be getting blood into his hair. It didn’t matter.

As the silence started to creep up, Dipper had to tell something that was still bothering him. He stared into the sky while starting to talk: “...You know, I still don’t know what to make out of you. You really nearly destroyed my life, well, actually the whole world. You were the most scary thing I had known. Damn, even after you disappeared, you still haunted me in my nightmares.” He waited for a moment, waiting for an answer. But Billy stayed quiet. “But seeing you like this… I really believe you when you say that you’re not strong enough.” The taller boy became tense. “I nearly believe that you aren’t him at all.” Another moment of silence. “You Still don’t trust me?” Billy asked, his voice soft and calm. “How can I?” Dipper asked. Billy’s hand found its way into the smaller boy’s hair, pulling him closer. He heard a small whimper as sirens got closer. “I understand that.”

An hour later, both of them were sitting in a hospital room. A patch over Billy’s eye covered what was now a hole in his head. The boy was smiling in delight, mostly because he wasn't used to painkillers this strong. “My head is all mushy pinetree,” he smiled, making such a cute and innocent face, it nearly hurt Dipper. But his mind was too busy. It had already started in the ambulance but he didn’t speak up since Billy was already stressed enough. But now, that the wound had been treated, he had to let it out. “Do you got some sort of health care Bill?” he asked sternly. He rolled around in the bad for a while before, turning towards the boy again. “A what?” he asked confused. Billy’s mind was everywhere beside where Dipper needed him. For a moment, he felt angry - but no, he shouldn’t. Loosing an eye was a great reason for being absent minded. “Try to remember, some sort of insurance. You need to pay for the ambulance, the hospital bills, ongoing medical bills - what exactly do you need now? A glass eye? More patches? What do will-”

Billy pushed his hand over Dippers mouth. “Shhh, shhh, shhh - calm down,” he mumbled and let go.”I don’t want to think about that now. The money will find it’s way and if it doesn’t, I will work. But… not now.” He rolled on his back, letting his fingers stroke across the hole in his head. “Would you hug me again?” he asked, showing his best puppy eye. “The nurses told me to sleep but I really can't when I’m always thinking about that.” He cautiously pointed towards what was once his right eye. Dipper sighted. He usually wouldn’t do this but Caplan had suffered enough today. The nurses had pushed him around for a while until he was quickly operated. But no one had told the boy much about the future or what he should do with that hole now. Dipper crawled into the bed next to him and pushed his arms around him. “Now sleep, you Idiot,” he mumbled. The bed certainly wasn’t made for two lanky college boys. Dipper, being the smaller one, had to face Billy’s chest. It was quiet for a while and Dipper could hear the demons breath becoming more regular, both of them nearly falling asleep. But then, Billy started to talk again. “Do you worry sometimes? That I… might hurt you again?” Dipper took a while to answer, sometimes thinking about the option of simply just acting like he was sleeping. “Yes, I think about it a lot,” he mumbled into Caplan’s hair. It sounded like Billy wanted to say something but bit his tongue before doing so. It took him awhile until words left his mouth again, nearly tripping over another. “Please don’t worry about me anymore. I would never hurt you… I like you far too much.” Dipper wasn’t really sure how to answer but before he could do so, something had reached his forehead. It took him awhile to understand that those were Billys lips on his skin. 

Dipper’s mind, quiet a moment ago, started to race again. What did that just mean? Saying such things with a kiss? That seemed to be far more than a platonic confession, much more ...romantic. But did he like Billy? Was he even interested in people right now? But what would happen if Billy liked him and he liked Billy? Or worse, if he liked the other boy but Caplan was actually Cipher? What if he was crushing on a demon? Or demon was crushing on him? Did demons even feel love? But was Billy Bill or not? His head started to hurt, his heart started to, his breath became shorter - until Caplan took his hand. “Breathe Dipper, breathe.” His voice was incredibly sober, as if the painkillers stopped already. The next sentences were sloppy again. “I… I guess I shouldn’t have said that I guess... Sorry.” A moment of silence threatened to squash Dipper. Why didn’t he say more? Why didn’t he explain? What should he they do now, sharing one bed? Dipper wanted to jump up and run but at the same time, he couldn’t. He needed to know what all of this meant. 

“What does this mean?”

Oh god. That was such a stupid question. A question that could also be asked in a english lesson. Even the words were badly chosen. Stupid… stupid, stupid, stupid. Probably because he was stupid too. Even the tone he used sounded so wrong. So cold, nearly hostile. No wonder he never was great with people. He couldn’t even form a simple sentence without destroying the whole thing. Why did he always do everything wrong? Fucking up the whole moment. Before Dipper’s brain could roast himself even worse, Billy let go of his hand and started to speak. “I just really lo- like you. It’s not just because you’ve been in my head for such a long time. You’re an amazing person, even if you’re mind is so loud, I could nearly hear your thoughts a second ago.” They were silent for a moment, Dipper struggling to realize the whole meaning of what has been said. When his mouth opened to form some sort of response, Billy stopped him. “And this is no way to, you know, get in your head or whatever you worry your pretty head about again. I’m not him and I never was and I never will be. I-I don’t care if you believe me, i just want you to know that I won’t ever hurt you. Never, never, never...” 

He mumbled a few more sentences, too slurred and softly to understand. The painkillers were still at work again. After that Billy was quiet again, waiting for some sort of response. But nothing came out of Dipper’s mouth. His head was empty, nothing even close to a response to be found. The need to run away was gone, replaced by a feeling of paralyze. After a while, he could Caplan shift awkwardly. Even through the drugs he realized that this wasn’t the way a confession should work normally. 

But nothing about them was normal.   
Nothing about Dipper was untouched by the trauma he had experienced in his teens.   
Nothing about Billy was unharmed by the memories of another live, another dimension.   
Nothing was normal about their relationships with that ungodly monster.   
Therefore, there would never be something normal between the two entirely unnormal boys.

It felt like an hour passed before Billy seemed to have the guts to continue. “Don’t you want to say anything?” Nothing. Dipper got out of the bed, straightening out his clothes. His face was devoid of any emotion. “Pinetree?” It nearly sounded like he was begging him for anything, just a word, a glimpse of emotions on his face. Nothing. “I’m going back to the dorms,” he finally said. “Call me when you can go, I’ll find a way to pick you up.” Dipper turned around and left, not listening to anything the other boy would say. 

But no words left Billy’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back for a while. This is just the start of a lot of emotional trouble. Any criticism is welcome :)


End file.
